


"I Hate You and Your Stupid Face!"

by Unrepentant_Marvelite



Series: Coming Home [2]
Category: X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, BAMF Charles, Families of Choice, Foster Care, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 00:50:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5354609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unrepentant_Marvelite/pseuds/Unrepentant_Marvelite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rogue isn't so sure about the newest member of the family. She can only trust Charles knows what he's doing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"I Hate You and Your Stupid Face!"

**Author's Note:**

> This occurs chronologically before the events of Mi Casa es Su Casa. Can be read independently.

“…So I want you to feel right at home here!”

Rogue snorted to herself when she saw the kid’s reaction. He rolled his eyes so hard they’d probably be sore afterwards from the exertion. Charles missed it, of course. Or, more realistically, he _chose_ to miss it. She’d learned enough from him these past few years to know it was never a good idea to get into it with a new kid right away, especially over something small.

New Guy was apparently named Alex. He was stocky, blonde, about twelve and had permanent scowl fixed on his face. He had two plastic shopping bags full of shit and absolutely nothing else. That was ok though. Charles would take care of that soon enough. He always made sure everyone who came through his house got a new pair of jeans and sneakers at least. For most of them, it was the first time they’d ever had new-anything in their entire lives. Rogue knew that had certainly been the case with her.

“Any questions, love?” He asked the Alex-person.

The boy grunted and glowered at the floor. Great, another Mr. Personality to add to Hank’s barely-contained extroversion. She snorted again. Poor Hank. Just starting to really come out of his shell and this guy was just going to eat him alive.

Rogue went back to her homework as she heard Charles continuing his tour upstairs. A few minutes later, a door-slam echoed down the halls but Charles came back into the kitchen, cheery and as undaunted as ever. He hummed under his breath as he put the kettle on and then gave his disgusting ginger-beard a little loving stroke.

“Charles, for Godssakes, how long are you going to keep that thing on your face?”

Wide, blue puppy-dog eyes, their legendary effectiveness broken only by the smile he tried to hide.

“Why, Anne-Marie! If you didn’t like it, you should’ve said something, love! Really, I had no idea.”

Rogue banged her head against the table and he laughed. She had complained about that scruffy thing nearly every day since he had started growing it out a few weeks ago.

“Erik, likes it, you know,” he said slyly with a little blush.

“That’s gross, Charles, gross! I don’t wanna ever hear about what Erik does or does not like!”

He laughed again (giggled, really) and stirred his tea. She shook her head at him. He was so madly in love with that man it was almost sick. Almost. Usually it was more ridiculously cute than anything.

“Hey,” she said to him when he started chopping veggies for dinner.

“Hey, yourself,” he responded automatically.

“You know that new kid’s gonna split, right?” she nodded up at the ceiling. Out the window, probably. At least that’s how she’d always done it.

“My dear,” Charles said, never once pausing in chopping onions, “Erik’s already circling the block.”

Then he caught her eye and she couldn’t help but share his grin. Yeah, sometimes it was too easy to forget that he really did know what the fuck he was doing.

\---

“C’mere, you,” Logan growled as he collared her on the way out of school.

“Logan--! Aw, what, I didn’t do it, man! Whatever it is, I didn’t do it!”

“Guilty conscience, bub?” he had her by the elbow and marched them along the corridors, away from his office.

“Where’re we going? I thought you were important now. Don’t you have an office or something where you can go all Gitmo on people in peace?”

“Naw, don’t wanna get blood all over. Furniture’s too nice.”

Now that made her laugh. It had taken years of terrifying detentions with the man before she’d finally understood Logan’s sense of humor. The fact that he was joking with her also meant she wasn’t in trouble. Or, at least, she wasn’t in serious trouble anyway.

Since his promotion, Logan had been pulling double-duty at their partner middle school. He was taking care of things on both sides of the interconnected campus until they hired someone else for his old position of Campus Safety Administrator. A fact Rogue didn’t remember until they crossed over the dividing line into the middle school.

“What the hell, Logan?” she said as he opened the door to the middle school main office. That was when she saw Hank hunched under his backpack in one of the chairs. Alex was pacing in front of the secretary’s desk holding an icepack to his jaw. That didn’t stop him from starting to shout as soon as he saw Logan though.

The kid had been with them for three days already and Rogue swore she had not heard him use a normal tone of voice even once. He was _always_ shouting and angry.

“You can’t keep me hear, you fucking asshole! I have rights!” he started.

“Enough!” said Logan and there was no humor hidden behind his gruffness now.

“You! In there,” he pointed Alex into the Principal’s office, “and you!” He leveled his finger at Rogue before softening, “Take care of McCoy here. Charles is on his way,” then he joined Alex and the Principal in the office and closed the door behind them.

“What’d he do?” she asked Hank, sinking into the chair beside him.

“Got in a fight. I don’t even know what the other guy did but apparently Alex jumped on him pretty quick.”

Rogue sighed. Yeah, that really wasn’t much of a surprise.

“Hey,” said Hank after looking nervously at his watch, “hey, I know Mr. Howlett--”

“--Logan,” Rogue automatically corrected. He hated to be called Mr. Howlett but, she supposed, Hank’s interactions with the man were significantly more limited than hers had been at his age.

“--right, Logan, well, I know he said to stay here until Charles came and got us but… um, I was supposed to go to Robotics Club today and… I mean, maybe I could just go to the beginning until Charles is done and ready to leave…?”

“Go, Hank,” she told him without hesitation. Charles had been so proud of him when he’d finally found the nerve to ask about joining in the first place. “If it isn’t over before we’re through here, Erik will pick you up on his way home.”

“O-oh, really? You think so? Is that… do you think that’s ok?”

“Yes, Hank, it’s fine. Go!” He hesitated once more before gathering his enormous backpack and scurrying out the door. She knew he was still wary around Erik so it was good to see him going after something he wanted even if it meant a whole, scary, fifteen-minute car ride with Erik afterwards.

Charles showed up in a rush of tweed and ugly beard three minutes later.

“Anne-Marie? Where’s Henry?” he said as he waved to the secretary.

“Went to his Robotics thing. I said Erik could probably grab him later if it took longer than this?”

He waved his hand distractedly, “Of course, of course, good. You all right while I go handle this?”

She pointed to the open book on her lap and said, “Go get’em tiger.”

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, “Yes, well.” Then he swept into the Principal’s office.

For the last few days, Charles had been in let’s-leave-him-alone-while-he-settles-mode with Alex. This consisted of mostly ignoring Alex’s grand-standing and passive-aggressive behavior and letting him act out more than normally would have been allowed while he weathered the transition. This was generally Step One in the Charles Xavier Guide to Teenage Foster Child Indoctrination and usually worked like a charm. It was a few days of turmoil before slowly easing the new kid into the normal structure of the household. Rogue remembered appreciating the space he had given her at the beginning when she had first arrived.

“You’re already in a new home with new people. That’s enough to be nervous about without throwing a lot of rules and restrictions at you. Giving everyone a few days to settle helps avoid resistance solely for the purpose of resistance,” he had explained to her once.

But as she listened to Alex’s muffled shouting from inside, she heard the low hum of Charles answering tones. He always lowered his voice when someone was shouting. It was a de-escalation technique, apparently. Forced the shouter to be quiet enough to listen rather than ramp up the volume himself to be heard. The truth was though, he hardly had to speak at all when someone was really in trouble. He’d just point the Big Blue Eyes of Disappointment at them and the juvenile offender would melt with shame. The fact that he was talking now… well, Rogue had a feeling that Alex had just blown his remaining time in Step One.

\---

It was less than an hour after they got home that Alex finally split. Charles went upstairs to bring him down for dinner and came straight back to kitchen where he made some calls from his cellphone.

“Hello, Raymond… yes, it has been too long… I know, I know, I need to get back there sometime… listen, my friend, terribly sorry to bother you with this, but would you happen to be on duty tonight? Yes? Excellent, you see one of my new boys has decided to go for an evening stroll… no, no, nothing official… yes, I just don’t want him to get hurt… he’s only upset, new home, new people, you understand? Yes, of course… twelve-years old, blonde hair, blue eyes, last seen in a red t-shirt and jeans… black backpack… uh huh… yes, perfect, thank you so much….”

It was handy working for the local government and having friends on the police force.

Alex was sulking in the back of a squad car out front before it even got fully dark. He stormed inside, face red and jaw clenched before Charles finished thanking his friend. She heard his door slam upstairs and hoped he wouldn’t be dumb enough to try to take off twice in the same night. Charles was a patient man but the same couldn’t be said for his friends on the force. If they picked him up again, he would spend the rest of the night in a jail cell.

Rogue knocked on his door.

“Go away!” came the muffled reply.

She knocked again.

“I said, go the fuck away!”

“Hey, asshole, I just want to talk,” she told him.

There was no reply. Luckily, she wasn’t easily discouraged. She could talk just fine through a locked door.

“You really need to think long and hard before doing something stupid again. You got a good place here, man, don’t screw it up. Charles is a good guy and--”

“He called the cops on me!”

Well at least he was listening.

“No, he called his buddy Ray who _happens_ to be a cop and who also happens to be a really chill guy, if you stopped being a dick long enough to notice. He brought you back here, man, didn’t arrest you or nothing. That’s not exactly protocol, you know.”

No answer.

Rogue sighed. “Look, all I’m saying is try thinking a little before you just react, ok? Nobody’s trying to hurt you here, Alex. We really just want you to be safe and comfortable.”

She kicked the toe of her sneaker against the baseboard. Talking feelings was easier with Charles around.

“Who knows,” she said, mostly to herself. “Give it a few months and you might start feeling like you got a real family again.” Sure worked out that way with her.

There was no answer for a long while. Charles poked his head upstairs eventually and knocked on the door to ask if Alex wanted leftovers from dinner. There was no response to that either so he gave Rogue a resigned look, shrugged and went back downstairs. It was only after the sounds of his footsteps died away that she could make out the quiet sobs coming from the other side of the door.

\---

Things were rough with Alex for the next few days. He was angry, short-tempered and generally awful to be around at all times. He challenged Charles at every step and his teachers reported miserable classroom behavior. Rogue watched Logan look more sour every day for an entire week before he finally caught up with her in the halls one day.

“New guy’s kinda a little shit, ain’t he?” he said not-really-under-his-breath.

When she asked what had happened he just shook his head and prowled back to his office. Alex came home late that day after his fourth straight afternoon in detention.

Worst of all, was how he picked on Hank. He was constantly trying to anger the older boy and start a pissing contest. One evening, Erik was cooking dinner while Hank sat at the table and worked on homework. Alex came in and immediately began fucking with him. First he made snide comments, teasing about Hank’s glasses, his clothes, the way he bit his pencil when lost in thought, anything really to get a rise. When that failed to get any reaction other than Hank ignoring him, he started tapping out a rhythm noisily on the table and flicking bits of eraser at Hank. Erik was still becoming comfortable in the role of partner-parent-figure that Charles intended for him and was usually more inclined to let Charles handle the discipline lest he overstep. But when there was some “accidental” rearrangement of Hank’s books and papers onto the floor, he was clearly close to stepping in. Before he could say something, however, a cup of milk spilled strategically over all of poor Hank’s work.

“What the hell, man!” Hank finally broke. He looked close to tears, visibly frustrated by ignoring the torment for so long. Alex was immediately on his feet, ready to get into it when Erik slid between them.

“You. Sit,” he ordered Hank, “and you. Out,” to Alex.

“Fuck you, freak!” Alex replied.

“ _What_ did you say?” Erik said, his voice dangerously low.

“I don’t hafta listen to you! You’re not in charge of me!”

“Boy,” said Erik, standing very still, “you will go to your room now.”

“Or what? What you gonna do, man? I ain’t scared of a fairy like you!”

Erik looked almost surprised at that response but recovered his composure an instant later.

“You’re not scared of me? Boy, I do not _want_ you to be scared of me. I want you to make some respect for yourself and not act as a child with this yelling and cruel names when you do not like something. Is this all you are, boy? Is this all there is to you? Foul words and shouting and anger?”

“Fuck you!” Alex screamed.

“You disagree? Words are cheap, boy. If you prove to me there is more to you than this little child anger then you may speak to me in any way you please.”

“I don’t owe you _nothin’!_ ” and just like that, he was out the door again. 

Erik could only sigh and rub his temples in response.

\---

When Charles rounded Alex up again, they sat out in the driveway in his car for a long time before coming inside. Good environments lead to good discussions, Charles liked to say. They worked over whatever they needed to talk about in private while Erik fretted inside about where he’d gone wrong.

“I think you were fine,” Rogue tried to tell him. “Alex was gonna blow no matter what and at least you kept him from doing it without hurting anybody. ‘Specially Hank.” she added. Hank had long-since scampered up to his room to rewrite his assignment. They’d offered to help him recopy it but he’d turned them down in favor of getting away to collect himself. Erik huffed in response. He really was trying hard to get that kind of shit right.

Alex went straight up to his room again when they came inside. He managed to shut the door without slamming it for once though so Rogue counted it as an improvement. Charles looked wrung out when he settled at the table. He gave Erik a kiss and rested his head on his shoulder, eyes closed for a few minutes before speaking.

“Anne-Marie, how was your day, love?”

“Whoa, no bullshit, Charles, what’d you say to Mr. Havoc-Bringer to get him to chill out?”

“We just talked about expectations and channeling confusing emotions in more appropriate ways.”

“Ha! If that works, then you’re a fucking magician.”

“Really, my dear, language like that betrays you intelligence.”

“Actually I think it’s a accurate representation.”

He shook his head wearily with a smile.

“Did you make any headway on those college essays, love?”

Rogue groaned. She knew the Master of Redirection was going to nag her about applying to schools until she finally did it even though she had a snowball’s chance in hell of actually getting in. Sometimes, though, it was easier just to give in and agree with the guy before he really picked up steam and got going. So she told him about her applications and he stroked Erik’s shoulder and picked at the remains of dinner while the night rolled on outside.

\---

Surprisingly, Alex chilled out a bit after that. He still shouted a lot, got frustrated easily and ended up in detention a few more times for back-talking teachers but at home, he started minding his own business. He left Hank alone and managed to sit through Dinner With The Family at least twice in a row without making any homophobic or horribly offensive comments.

“Keep this up, man, and we might actually start liking you,” Rogue told him one night when he helped her clear the table after dinner. He scowled and she backed off while he tried to puzzle out what she meant. Dude wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, Rogue decided.

But, just like it says in that poem in that one book, nothing gold can stay.

Rogue came home late one Saturday from dicking around with some friends at the park to find Charles helping Alex at the kitchen table with some remedial math worksheets.

“You see here, all this _y_ is, really, is a placeholder. It stands for a number, any number that we don’t know and your job is to find out what that is, like a mystery, Alex. This is detective work!”

Alex rubbed his eye. There were bits of crumpled and shredded paper spread all over the table. They’d clearly been at it for a while.

“But what’s _y_ got to do with a number? I don’t get why it’s a _y_!” He was getting frustrated.

“The letter is only a placeholder, love. It might as well be any letter, any blank or picture even. Here, let me rewrite it as this… see? Now it’s ‘ _blank_ \+ 4 = 17’ instead of ‘ _y_ \+ 4 =17’.” What can we put in this ‘blank’ to make this equation true? Do you see?”

“No! No, I don’t fucking see!” and he slashed at the paper so hard it tore. Erik poked his head in from the living room at the sound of the sharp words.

“All right?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Yes, fine, we’re fine,” Charles waved him off and turned back to Alex. “Here, deep breath, Alex, let me try to explain it another way…”

“No! This is stupid! I’m never gonna get it and I don’t care cuz it’s stupid!” he slammed his fist against the table

“You’re doing fine, Alex, here let’s try something else… maybe work on your social studies for a moment and come back to the maths, yes?”

“No, fuck, I hate this!” he shoved the books on the floor and knocked over his chair in his haste to get away. He was balling his hands, clenching his jaw, screwing up his face as though in pain. Rogue figured it was time to try and slip out of the kitchen and let the guys handle this tantrum but that was when Charles stood up.

He never stood up when someone got mad. He tried to stay low and unthreatening hoping the kid would mirror him. This time, he must have seen something he didn’t like.

“Alex…” he began, hands out, palms up, nonaggressive but ready, “Deep breath, lad. Come on, you remember, we talked about this. Deep breath in, count to three and then out again through your nose… come on, with me now…”

“Get away from me! Just leave me alone, you fucking faggot!”

“You’re frustrated. This is difficult and you’re frustrated. Let’s breathe and we can talk about it, figure it out together.”

“ _I don’t wanna talk about it!_ ”

“Charles…” Erik began, his eyes quick and cautious.

“Ok, we don’t have to talk now, but we do need to take some deep breaths and--”

“No! No, shut up! You cocksucker, shut up!”

“Charles--!”   

“You’re fine, Alex, you’re safe, just--”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” he shrieked and then, like a cornered grizzly, swung at Charles.

He was ready for it. He blocked the fist and stepped right up into Alex’s space to pin the arm behind his back. Alex flailed, caught Charles in the mouth with his other fist and almost struggled free before Erik grabbed his other arm.

“Erik--!”

“Yes, I’ve got him--!”

It was something out of a ballet. Rogue had never seen them move like that before. Sure, she knew Charles had moves. This wasn’t the first time someone’d taken a swing at him. He could defend himself well enough and usually keep a kid pinned until he tired out and calmed down.

But the two of them together--!

They worked like a well-oiled machine, grabbing Alex under the armpits and hoisting him back against the wall sandwiched between them. They paused there, backs flush alongside Alex who was kicking and flailing as wildly as he could, shouting and going red in the face. Then, with one movement, the two men slid down the wall into a seated position at its base using their combined weight to drag Alex down between them.

“Shh, shhh, it’s ok, love, it’s ok. Deep breath now, you’re safe…”

“I hate you!” he screamed, kicking his legs impotently against the floor and trying to struggle free.

“You don’t dear, I know that. You’re frustrated and angry. It’s difficult when we can’t understand something right away, it makes us feel out of control and things have been out of control for a long time, haven’t they, Alex?”

“Shut up! SHUT UP!” he wailed, tears in his eyes now.

“Shh, it’s ok. We’re just going to sit here until you settle, love. Just breathe for me.”

“I hate you! I hate you and your stupid face!”

Charles sighed and for the first time looked over Alex’s head at Erik.

“Really not getting positive feedback about the beard, darling. Think I might have to shave it off soon.”

He was bleeding now from a split lip and Alex was crying freely, still kicking occasionally and trying to wrench away.

“I like the beard,” Erik said, trying to mimic Charles’ calm but his worry cracking through. “Your lip, Charles…”

“…is fine. Alex hardly meant any harm, I think. We’re just going to need to work on better coping strategies in the future, that’s all. You’re all right, Alex. Deep breaths.”

“I-I can’t! I c-can’t!” he gasped out between sobs, nothing more than a token fight left in him.

He was drawing breath in shallow heaves, way too fast to do any good.

“That’s ok, listen to me now, you’re breathing too fast, Alex. It’s going to be difficult to calm down like that… here, Anne-Marie’ll bring us a bag, won’t she? Thanks, love,” he said when she dug out a brown paper lunch sack from the cabinets. He slowly released Alex’s arm and when Erik did the same he took the boy’s hands in his and opened the bag over his mouth. He was hyperventilating in earnest now and clutched the bag like a lifeline, gasping into it. Charles patted his back reassuringly.

Slowly, Alex began to calm down. His breathing came under control and he slumped sideways into Charles’ warmth beside him, worn out from his temper.

“There now, there you are, deep breaths, love,” Charles wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulders.

“I j-just… I just…”

“Shhh, it’s all right, you’re safe.”

“I d-didn’t mean to…!”

“I know, I know it, dear.”

“No, I just… I just left him! I d-didn’t mean to b-but I did! J-just like them! I’m just like them!”

The tears came fresh again and Charles held him tight, rocking slowly.

“I’m just… I’m just as b-b-bad! I left him and I said! I said I’d come b-back!”

“Shhh, you’re doing the best you can, Alex. You’re fine, you’re safe…”

“B-but I gotta be there for him! I gotta! He’s m-my brother, man! My kid brother! An- an’ I just left him like they did! W-we gotta stick together… I promised… oh fuck, I promised!”

Charles stopped rocking. He held Alex close and shared a look with Erik, the kind that always made Hank think they were talking telepathically.

“Alex,” Charles said as the kid’s sobs slowed. “Alex, do you know where your brother is? Is he in foster care somewhere?”

No, he shook his head, eyes still screwed shut. “He’s at Gran’s house, I guess… that’s where we went after Dad left… He’s… he’s prob’ly waiting for me. I promised I wouldn’t leave an’ then… Then I did. I’m shit, man. I’m a shitty brother.”

“Your grandmother? She never reported you as a runaway… there was no Missing Person Report in your file…”

“Well she wouldn’t, would she?” Alex said as he used his sleeve to wipe the snot away from his nose. “Me’n Gran… we didn’t get along so good. She was happy to see the back of me. I just… I feel bad I left Scottie… He’s a good kid. And Gran… she can’t do too much for him anymore. I was s’posed to be taking care of him…”

Rogue could already see the gears clicking away in Charles’ mind. He gave Alex one final reassuring pat.

“Alex, you’re feeling a little better now, yes? Erik’s going to take you for a walk outside, some fresh air to clear you head a little. While you’re out, I’m going to make some phone calls. And when you get back, we’re going to talk about getting you back to living with your brother again, all right? How does that sound?”

For the first time since his arrival, Alex grinned. The clouds parted, angels sang from the Heavens and the sun streamed in. Charles gave him a kiss on the forehead, one final tight squeeze and dashed off to his office, bloody lip and all.

Erik shook his head and gave a long-suffering sigh before getting to his feet. He turned to help Alex up but stopped when he saw the look on the boy’s face.

His expression had fallen. His brow was knit deep in concentration. He was working on a harder problem than any math equation before.

“But… then I’d have to go back to Nebraska…” he said.

The kid was just too much.

“You dumbass,” Rogue assured him, stepping forward to haul him up. “He means he’s gonna bring your brother here. How about that, huh?”

And at that, the poor sonofabitch started to cry again. His smile couldn’t be big enough. 


End file.
